(dir. Werner Herzog, 1997, United Kingdom/France, 77 minutes)

Preceding director Werner Herzog’s 2006 Christian Bale vehicle Rescue Dawn, which narrativizes the events described here, Little Dieter Needs to Fly is a documentary (of sorts) focusing on the life of Dieter Dengler. From a very young age, Dengler dreamt of becoming a fighter pilot, and to pursue this goal he emigrated from Germany to the United States, joined the Navy, was sent to Vietnam in 1966, and… was shot down over Laos only a few days into his first tour, where he went on to be taken prisoner and tortured, before making a harrowing escape. Built around modern interviews with Dengler, replete with reenactments, Herzog has cited Little Dieter Needs to Fly as being his best “narrative” film. (“Narrative” in quotes, because it is in most ways a documentary.)

In English and German with English subtitles as needed.